Commanders: Ranking the NFC East offensive lines for 2022

Just a wee bit longer. Just a few more hours until the inaugural season of the Washington Commanders finally begins. Can’t you just taste it? As we kill the few remaining moments, let’s take a quick look at how the Washington Commanders stack up against the rest of the NFC East – position group by position group. And let’s begin with the group that defined Washington in its most halcyon days – the offensive line.

Commanders: 2022 NFC East offensive line rankings

So, turn back the clock for a moment to 2020. At the beginning of the season, common wisdom had the Cowboys and the Eagles battling it out for the best O line in the division. The Giants had invested a lot of draft capital in rebuilding their miserable excuse for a line that off-season and people (foolishly, as it turned out) thought they would actually show improvement.

Washington was pretty clearly thought to have the worst line in the division. They had just mangled their relationship with their best player, left tackle Trent Williams, and they didn’t have an obvious replacement to take over that crucial spot. Right tackle Morgan Moses was coming off his worst season as a pro. Brendan Scherff had been banged up, and nobody was sure what Washington had at center and left guard.

Lo and behold, Washington thrived. Moses rebounded. Unknown newcomers Wes Schweitzer and Cornelius Lucas stepped in and played very well. And Chase Roullier developed into a stalwart in the middle.

Meanwhile, Dallas and Philly were devastated by multiple injuries, and New York – well, they just remained New York. By the end of the season, Washington had the best line in the division.

OK – now we enter 2022. Once again, Philly and Dallas are reported to have the best lines. And New York is supposedly improving.

But…

Dallas will be missing both of its starting tackles from a year ago. They allowed right tackle La’el Collins to leave, but they were counting on star left tackle Tyron Smith to anchor the line. Smith is again out, possibly for the entire season, and it looks as if Tyler Smith, the mammoth rookie from Tulsa, will be asked to take his spot. Smith has a world of talent, but he just turned 21 years old. He was supposed to whet his beak at guard for at least a season before moving outside. The Cowboys are hoping he can make the transition, but they have been worried enough to put out feelers to many teams with tackles to spare. They even had the venerable Jason Peters in for a workout, and don’t be surprised if the 40-year-old isn’t starting for big D as early as week 1.

With the exception of right guard Zach Martin, Dallas’ other three projected starters have something to prove. Terence Steele is simply not as good as La’el Collins was. Collins could get sloppy at times, but he was more physically gifted. The same applies to center Tyler Biadasz. He may develop into a consistent mid-level starter, but he will never be as good as Travis Frederick. The other guard, Connor McGovern, is a slightly less powerful, and potentially more athletic version of the previous guard named Connor – Connor Williams.

Even before Tyron Smith’s injury, Dallas’ line did not look to be as good as it was projected to be two years ago. Without him, they could be in for some tough times. A lot will depend on how the rookie Tyler Smith adjusts to the big leagues. None of this bodes particularly well for Ezekiel Elliott, who tends to need a quality line to run behind. And it also potentially hurts the Cowboys ability run longer downfield plays – a feature which was already going to suffer due to the absence of both Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup (at least for a good chunk of the season) from last year’s offense.